Hey, im new to intalling OpenSuse. I have an old laptop like 4-5 years old, and i want to erease windows completly off of it and replace it with OpenSuse 11.0. How would i go about doing that?
Thanks in advance 
When the installer comes to the part asking which part of the disk you want to use, just tell it to use the whole disk.
Check that you can run OpenSUSE before you wipe Windows. The LiveCD will allow you to do that. It’s important to have enough RAM. 256MB is the bare minimum for KDE.
You might also want to check your model’s compatibility with Linux before you do anything. If you do a search on the model name and linux you should get some hits on sites collecting compatibility reports of various features. If a feature works under any Linux distro it should work on all distros (with some tweaking perhaps) as Linux has a common code base.
11.1 is out next week, so if you wait a few days you’ll have the latest version.
okay thanks, i looked it up and it (10.0 atleast) is compatable. And if i do keep windows and install linux along side it and it works, how can i go back and erase windows?
Also under power management for my model it has an X by it and says it will suspend but not resume, what does that mean?
Best to go back and do a full install, this time specifying the whole disk.
Someone else will have to explain suspend and resume. Maybe you should start a new thread or nobody will notice the new question. Mentioning the model number might be useful.
Also under power management for my model it has an X by it and says it will suspend but not resume, what does that mean?
There is a good chance that if you choose openSuse 11 or 11.1, this will work (or can be tweaked to work). Usually problems like this arise because of problematic hardware like graphics chipsets.
okay the labtop X problem was fixed. I installed OS and it works so now im reinstalling it full disk spaced used. But i dont see an option for full disk, how do i get there, quick replies plz, its running now.
http://img120.imageshack.us/img120/2259/screenshotexpertpartitibs6.jpg
srry for double post but here is a pic of current partitions, ignore bottom one that is my USB drive
You need to go select the Expert option at the partitioning step.
Alternatively, clear the partition table using any rescue disk that has a partition editor and the install DVD will see a blank disk.
As @ken_yap suggests, use expert partitioner in Yast (alternatively you can use something like Parted magic cd to wipe the disk and create your 3 partitions)
Here is a secreenshot of what to look for in Yast:
ImageShack - Image Hosting :: xp53qp0.png
then
ImageShack - Image Hosting :: xp54oc2.png
You will need to delete: 1,2,5,6,7
that should just leave sda at the top
now choose create and do:
/
/home
swap
/home is the one to give as much space as you can
/ 10GB should be plenty
swap 512MB
use ext3 for / and /home
remember to use MBR for grub. double check this when the summary comes up: http://img247.imageshack.us/my.php?image=xp74rq4.png
click Booting
make sure boot is from MBR
